Keys threw a passing touchdown and rushed for another for the Mavericks. Evan Hansen, Jake Wachter and Nathan Mackey also had rushing touchdowns. Dom Esters caught the touchdown from Keys.
Longmont quarterback Oakley Dehning rushed for a touchdown.
This was just the second-ever meeting between the two schools which are just 15 minutes apart. Mead won last season, 49-35, during its march to the semifinals.
Bayfield senior Hunter Killough had a game-sealing interception in the game’s final moments, according to the Durango Herald.
“I wanted it bad,” he told the paper after the game. “Since last year, I had been stewing on this game. It’s good to get that victory.”
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Notables:
5A No. 8 Mullen went out-of-state to play Bothell (Wash.), and had a big rally and a chance to win late, but fell 31-28. Bothell reached Washington’s 4A quarterfinals last season.
In 1A, No. 2 Meeker got a top-10 win over No. 8 Monte Vista, 30-7. “Our defense did a good job of flying around the football tonight,” coach Shane Phelan told the Scoreboard Show. The Cowboys are 4-0.
Skyview knocked off No. 10 Thomas Jefferson 27-16 in 3A. The Wolverines have started 4-0, their best start since 2011.
Harrison beat Glenwood Springs 36-22, and is now 4-0 in 3A. “This is just another step forward for us,” coach Al Melo told the Scoreboard Show. “It was a good win for our kids tonight, and I’m really proud of them.
Check out Widefield, which is 4-0 in 4A following a 42-0 win over Palmer. The Gladiators haven’t started 4-0 since 2010. TJ Davis rushed for 168 yards and two touchdowns on Friday. He also threw two touchdown passes.
5A No. 3 Eaglecrest is now 4-0 after beating Cherokee Trail 28-14.
Berthoud upset 3A No. 5 Fort Morgan, 22-10.
Grand Valley and Aspen had lightning delay their game, which the Skiers ultimately won 30-26. Aspen, which won a combined four games the past two seasons, is 4-0 for the first time since 2010.
Sierra Grande beat Cheraw 61-6 in 6-man action, including this touchdown. The Panthers are now 4-0, something they haven’t done since 2005.
6-man No. 1 Stratton/Liberty cruised to a 68-8 win over Idalia. Tyson Lichty completed four passes — all four went for touchdowns. Jacob McCormick rushed for 131 yards and two touchdowns.
Levi Mair had four total touchdowns in Arvada’s 30-6 win over The Pinnacle.
Jaion Colbert rushed for 185 yards and two touchdowns as Overland beat Rangeview 42-20.
Zac Hanenberg had two rushing touchdowns as Canon City beat Pueblo East 29-16. The Tigers are now 4-0, matching their win total from each of the past two seasons.
Peyton beat Ellicott 41-0 in 1A. Gunner Saarela rushed for 95 yards and two touchdowns.
Trevor Reuss threw for 241 yards in 2A Basalt’s 41-33 win over 3A Battle Mountain.
Garrett Anderson rushed for 157 yards and a score as Lewis-Palmer topped Pueblo County 20-10 in a 3A matchup.
5A Ralston Valley also went out-of-state, and beat East Bakersfield (Calif.) 35-14.
Yuma beat second-ranked Lyons in a grueling five-set match, 25-21, 23-25, 21-25, 25-20, 16-14. The Indians trailed 8-1 in the fourth set, and 5-1 in the fifth.
“I can’t even tell you how many points we trailed in the entire match,” Yuma coach Jenny Noble said on Friday night. “It was really unreal. I still can’t believe we found a way to come back and win it.
“We really did a lot of, ‘Close your eyes. We’ve got to think it, we’ve got to believe it,’” Noble added. “And they did. It’s kind of a blur to me still.
“We just put it together. Pretty incredible.”
Reagan Nolin, a sophomore, stood out on Friday for Yuma.
“She was unfazed, really, by the pressure of the situation, and just put together a really good string of points for us,” Noble said. “It was really really unreal.”
Noble also pointed to junior Taylor Hansen, who “had some big blocks and aggressive swings,” she said.
Yuma is now 7-1 this season, while Lyons, which moved up from No. 3 to No. 2 this week, is 9-3.
ARVADA — In a rematch of the last two Class 5A football championship games, No. 1 Valor Christian saw the same result in a 34-21 win on Friday.
“We still have work to do,” Running back Joshia Davis said. “This is a great win, but we’re never going to keep our heads too high. We’re going to still put in work every single day. We’re going to be a better team next week.”
The Eagles took advantage of key Pomona mistakes in the win.
With No. 2 Pomona threatening in the redzone in the first quarter, Ryan Marquez watched an errant snap sail over his head for a huge loss, knocking the Panthers out of field goal range.
“I was proud of how we responded when a young team could have folded and let them have momentum,” Valor Christian head coach Rod Sherman said. “I thought there were a few of those times. It would have been really easy for a young team to fold, and we didn’t.”
Pomona was forced to punt and forego points, down 10-0. That became a trend too often for the Panthers to overcome.
On the first play of Valor Christian’s drive, Davis broke through the line and bolted for an 80-yard touchdown run to put the Eagles up 17-0. Davis had a three-touchdown night in the backfield.
“I thought it was probably his all-around best football game,” Sherman said. “Last week, he did an unbelievable job catching the ball out of the backfield, so I think he showed his versatility. He ran through some tackles, got extra yards when we needed them and made a lot of things happen. You can see what a versatile player he is between the lines.”
Pomona quarterback Ryan Marquez put the Panthers on the board on a huge fourth down conversion. Marquez escaped the pocket sprinting to his right, then threw across his body for a 34-yard touchdown as Riley Govan reached up and wrestled the ball away from a Valor Christian defender.
Marquez’s effort made it 17-7, and Pomona had another chance to close the lead before halftime. With Pomona in the redzone again, Ryan Thibault intercepted a Marquez pass with 32 seconds left to keep the Panthers off the board.
“Our defense came out firing and we just fed off them,” Davis said. “We came out knowing they’re a great team. We scouted for them and we feel like we executed very well.”
Davis’ tough running showed up again in Valor’s first possession of the second half. He broke a few tackles and dragged a couple defenders into the endzone with him to extend the lead.
Max Borghi didn’t let the deficit last long. He took the kickoff back 93 yards for the score as he dodged his way through a field of defenders, then beat the rest with pure speed.
“What could have been the turning points could have been when they got emotion from the interception, the kickoff return, long pass plays,” Sherman said. “That’s where I’m most proud of our guys. We were consistent in our effort, consistent in our execution. We didn’t let those become turning points.”
Brian Brogan’s 41-yard field goal and a 51-yard rushing touchdown from Davis gave Valor Christian separation as the team took a 34-21 lead into the final quarter.
Pomona never did quit as Marquez found David Ross streaking down the sideline for 78 yards and the score.
After Brogan put a 37-yard field goal through the uprights to break the scoreless affair in the second quarter, Valor Christian’s Luke McCaffrey completed a 40-yard pass to Kaiden Keefe, setting up the Eagles at the 11.
(Cannon Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Blake Stenstrom re-entered the game and put Valor Christian in the endzone for the first time in the game. Stenstrom moved around in the pocket, escaped pressure and threw off back foot to find Keefe for an 11-yard touchdown, making it 10-0 Valor Christian.
“With our nonconference schedule, having enough energy every week to match the energy of what we knew we were going to get from our opponents is a challenge,” Sherman said. “I’m so proud of our guys for that fact. I thought Pomona came out really hard, ready to go, but I thought our guys came out physical and ready to go as well.”
With Pomona looking to strike back, Marquez and Billy Pospisil connected for a a 51-yard completion, then a pass interference call moved the Panthers up to the 14.
The snap went over Marquez’s head and prevented Pomona from getting sure points.
Valor Christian smelled blood and Davis took the first snap 80 yards for the touchdown.
Marquez responded with a dazzling display of arm strength and pocket presence as he found Pospisil and Ross for big touchdowns, but the Valor Christian defense held strong, and the offense steadily produced in the win.
“It can do two things,” Davis said. “It can give us confidence, and we come out knowing that we can play. Or we keep doing what we’re doing and keep playing with good effort.”
Dakota Ridge junior Jered Garcia (1) fights his way into the end zone Friday against Pueblo West. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
LAKEWOOD — Pueblo West football made a productive and successful road trip to Jeffco Stadium late afternoon Friday.
It didn’t look like a masterpiece at times, but the Cyclones (4-0 record), ranked No. 7 in the latest CHSAANow.com Class 4A football poll, stayed undefeated on the season with a 31-7 victory.
“It’s huge,” Pueblo West coach Monte Pinkerton said. “We have all the respect in the world for Dakota Ridge. We’ve had some great battles over the years in playoffs. We know this is a tough place to come and win against a team like that.”
The Cyclones leaned heavily on their defense. Pueblo West’s defense put constant pressure on Dakota Ridge senior quarterback Drew Dominic and intercepted back-up quarterback Ben Biffinger in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.
Pueblo West’s Dominic Valle sacks Dakota Ridge quarterback Drew Dominic on Friday at Jeffco Stadium. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“We just came with a focus that we had to stop the pass and run game,” Pueblo West senior defensive lineman Garrett Cassio said. “I thought we did that pretty well. It was a good road win. We’ve just got to keep working because our standards are high.”
The Eagles defense kept Dakota Ridge in the game through three quarters. Pueblo West held just a 2-score lead — 18-7 — until the Cyclones scored back-to-back touchdowns less than a minute apart midway through the fourth quarter.
Pueblo West senior Pierre Taylor scored on a 48-yard touchdown run after senior lineman John Stever recovered an Eagles’ fumble. An interception by senior Dain Rojas of Biffinger set up a 4-yard touchdown run by Taylor with 6:26 left in the game to make the score 31-7.
“We are always looking for those big plays,” Cassio said of the late interception by Rojas. “Big plays win big games.”
Dakota Ridge’s lone score came in large part to the Eagles’ defense. Pueblo West went for it on 4th down from its own 28-yard line early in the second quarter. The Eagles made the stop to give Dakota Ridge’s offense a short field.
The Eagles (1-3) cashed in with a strong 6-yard touchdown run by junior running back Jered Garcia, who carried a trio of Pueblo West defenders on his back into the end zone.
“I just put my head down and keep pumping my legs,” Garcia said of the touchdown run. “I gave it all I’ve got.”
Pueblo West answered before halftime with a last-minute scoring drive. Senior quarterback Jacob Wilkinson hooked up with senior Nieyeme Smeyer-Williams for the second time in the first half to give the Cyclones a 18-7 lead at halftime.
Dakota Ridge coach Ron Woitalewicz said the focus was to contain Pueblo West senior running back Devyn Morgan. For the most part that plan was successful, plus Morgan went down with a knee injury in the third quarter and didn’t return.
Pueblo West’s Devyn Morgan (14) scored his eighth TD of the season Friday. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“Our plan was to try to isolate and shutdown him (Morgan),” Woitalewicz said. “No. 3 (Smeyer-Williams) hurt us a bit before the end of the half, but we had a lot of stops on fourth down and stopped four 2-point conversion.”
Morgan had the other first-half touchdown for the Cyclones. Morgan scored his eight rushing touchdown of the season with a 1-yard touchdown run. Pueblo West did have its struggles failing on all three 2-point conversion tries in the first half.
In the end, Dakota Ridge knows it needs to improve offensively if it wants to make some noise when 4A Plains League play begins.
“We are so young up front on the offensive line. It’s still growing pains,” Woitalewicz said. “We’ll keep working and figure it out.”
Dakota Ridge faces Wheat Ridge in a non-league game next Thursday night at the North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada. Pueblo West returns home to face Coronado next Friday night.
Pueblo West’s Nieyeme Smeyer-Williams, far right, had a pair of first-half touchdown against Dakota Ridge. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Strasburg softball made a statement on Friday with an 11-1 win over Brush.
The top-ranked squad in Class 3A got all kinds of offensive production with two RBIs apiece from Dakota Stotyn, Emily Johnson and Haley Stone.
Stotyn homered as part of a 2-for-3 day in the win over the second-ranked Beetdiggers.
Alexis Rayburn did the rest in the circle. The junior pitcher allowed just two hits and one run in five innings. She struck out eight and walked just two.
Rayburn was also 2-for-3 with an RBI at the plate.
Strasburg is now 10-3 this season. Brush is now 11-2, and entered the game riding a six-game winning streak.
“Our backup is really good and he’s just a junior,” Ponderosa coach Jaron Cohen said. “We give those guys reps and he knows how to run our system. Dylan stepped up and made some really good throws.”
In three completions, Hollowell marched the Ponderosa (4-0 overall) 59 yards to score its fourth touchdown of the game just as time expired in the first half.
Ostdahl had amassed 103 passing yards before leaving the field. But more importantly, he ran for 87 yards, including the Mustangs first touchdown of the game.
“We were a little slow to start,” Ostdahl said. “We just have to make things happen more often and it was a little bit of a slow start but we got it going.”
In order to keep pace, Rampart (2-2) had to use an offensive attack that was dependent on the efficiency of two quarterbacks.
Keion Cross handled things on the ground while sophomore Kevin Witcher was tasked with moving the ball through the air.
“They have some pretty good backs, some talented linemen and some good schemes,” Cohen said. “They had us outnumbered a few times so we had to go to the drawing board at halftime and figure some things out.”
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
Witcher set up the Rams’ lone scoring drive of the first half with a 24-yard completion to Jared Behm. Cross then broke for a long run and finished off the drive by running it into the end zone from two yards out.
On the ensuing kick-off, Jevon Glover took it to the house to regain momentum and a 14-point lead for the Mustangs.
“I think that it brought the momentum back to us,” Glover said. “It brought up the hype.”
On the final drive of the half, Ostdahl went down with his injury and Hollowell found Kade Ongna for a 12-yard touchdown pass to make it a 28-7 game.
The Mustangs started the second half just as strong as they ended the first. They went with a heavy offensive dose of Glover who got into the end zone again, this time on a 38-yard run. He finished with 109 rushing yards and a touchdown to go with his kick return touchdown.
The Rams added a touchdown in the third quarter on a 61-yard pass from Witcher to Behm. But it was too little, too late.
“One of the things we’ve struggled with is consistency,” Rampart coach Rob Royer said. “There are times when we see the flashes of the team we can be and there are times when consistency snake bites us.”
Ponderosa will look to add a fifth-straight win to the season next week when it hosts Pueblo Centennial. Rampart has a bye before opening up league play against Littleton.
Logan’s Cherry Creek Bruins beat Grandview 40-20 in Week 4. That brings his career record to 250-61.
Logan sits at No. 7 all-time in terms of career victories in Colorado — and is currently one win behind former Cherry Creek coach Fred Tesone, who won 251 games from 1962-89.
The longtime figure has also coached at Arvada West, Chatfield and Mullen. He has won championships at every stop, and has seven in total. Only former Limon coach Lloyd Gaskill (1933-79), who coached teams to 10 titles in his career, has more in state history.
Logan is in his 24th year as a high school football coach. His teams have made the postseason 21 times.
Logan was a three-sport star at Wheat Ridge High School, and later went on to star at the University of Colorado. He was selected in the MLB, NBA and NFL drafts. After college, Logan had a nine-year career in the NFL.
On top of his coaching duties, Logan is also currently the voice of the Denver Broncos, handling play-by-play duties each week.
LAKEWOOD — The streak is over in the biggest football rivalry in South Jeffco.
Chatfield, ranked No. 3 in the CHSAANow.com Class 4A football poll, defeated rival Columbine for the first time since 2009. The Chargers took a 35-14 victory over the Rebels, No. 4 in 5A, on Friday night at Jeffco Stadium.
“In our community this means so much to us. When you lose for seven straight years this is what happens,” Chatfield coach Brett McGatlin said. “A lot of people doubted us. Even people in our community doubted we could win this game.”
Columbine (3-1 record) had a 7-game winning streak against Chatfield (3-1). It was the second time McGatlin has coached the Chargers to a win over the Rebels during his 12 years at the helm of Chatfield football program.
“Our senior leadership wanted this as bad as the group did in 2009,” McGatlin said of the difference this year. “We knew we couldn’t just show up on a Friday night and win this game. We had to work all off-season long.”
Chatfield senior Ben Frenette (23) breaks into the open field Friday. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
A pair of long pass plays by Chatfield made a huge difference in the game. Senior quarterback Colton Arne hit senior Keland Rumsey for a 44-yard touchdown pass in the opening minutes of the second quarter to regain the lead — 13-7 — for the Chargers.
“We knew if we could have some big plays we were going to win the game,” Arne said. “We had a good game plan and our guys played great.”
After the Chatfield defense stopped Columbine on its opening drive in the second half, Arne hit senior Cole Ingersoll for a 46-yard pass play and a 15-yard roughing the passer was tacked on. Senior running back Ben Frenette score on the next play from 14 yards out to extend the lead to 21-7 midway through the third quarter.
“Columbine is so good at not giving up the big play. We made those plays tonight,” McGatlin said. “I knew I had to take some shots. If we played conservative they were going to shut us down. We had to take our shots.”
Columbine answered converting a Chatfield turnover into its second touchdown of the night. Junior quarterback Logan DeArment scored from 1-yard out with under a minute to play in the third quarter, but it would be the last score for the Rebels.
“We were trying to limit them to big plays and rally to the ball,” DeArment said. “We just couldn’t stop them. They are a good football team.”
Columbine’s Ted Mullin (25) hauls in a catch in front of Chatfield’s Keland Rumsey. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
It didn’t help the Rebels’ cause that two-way player Ted Mullin went out in the first half with an injury and didn’t return to the field. Mullin actually gave Columbine a 7-6 lead early in the second quarter with a 9-yard touchdown run.
The ball bounced the Chargers’ way in the fourth quarter. Even when Frenette fumbled near Columbine’s 5-yard line, teammate Josh Swinney was able to recover the ball in the end zone for a touchdown to extend the lead to 28-14.
Chatfield punched in another short touchdown run for the final score to end the losing streak against Columbine.
“For four years we’ve busted our butts,” Frenette said of the seniors. “A lot of people stepped up this year. We have a lot of good leaders this year. We have a lot of good guys coming together to get this win.”
Frenette said it was “absolutely” the biggest victory of his prep career.
For Columbine, a loss early in the season has worked as motivation in the past. Lakewood upset the Rebels several years ago early in the season. Columbine went on to regroup and win the 5A state championship that year.
“They just dominated us all around the football today,” DeArment admitted. “We just didn’t come ready. We need to come back and use this next week to get better.”
Columbine is on the road against Denver East next week at All-City Field. Chatfield hosts Widefield next Friday night at Jeffco Stadium.
“We just have to stay intense, stay up and focus on our ultimate goal — a state championship,” Arne said.
Columbine quarterback Logan DeArment (10) is bottled up by the Chatfield defense. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)(Marlee Smith/CHSAANow.com)
LAKEWOOD — Standley Lake football stepped up on defense with the game on the line.
After scoring a touchdown with less than a minute to go, Green Mountain attempted a two-point conversion that would have forced overtime, but Standley Lake held true and stopped the Rams.
